Does Technology Make a Difference? Essay

In Port Jackson, the first British colony of New South Wales arrived. When the colony arrived in January 1788, they came across Aboriginal people who were known to fish around Port Jackson. As of today, there is said to be over 580 species that live in the waters around Port Jackson. The Aboriginal people had been fishing in these areas long enough to make fish a part of their diet. When the British brought their colony to Port Jackson, they learned to also make fish part of their diet. Aboriginal people used the resources around them to make equipment and transportation to fish. They made spears for people who would fish from the shore, and made small canoes and fishhooks out of shells for those who wanted the challenge of catching bigger fish. When the British saw how these people would catch their food, they brought over fishhooks made of metal, nets and boats that were much larger than the canoes. Introducing new and better technology in an environment is never easy. This article discusses the important issues to understand, the good and the bad of technology. Introducing a new technology to an older method made the business of fishing boom, which was good for both sides. With the British bringing in their methods helped bring more fish for the people to eat, with the addition of what the Aboriginals would bring in at the end of the day. Also having the new technology, there was a broader variety of new fish that couldn’t be caught with the old methods. It also helped the Aboriginals convert to using the methods that the British used after seeing how much more fish they could catch in a day. But like everything new to people, it caused the Aboriginals kind of give up on their methods all the way, just to keep up with the British. After a while the Aboriginals would start working on the British boats to earn a percentage of the fish they would all catch each day. The British would also trade some of the fish they had caught for equipment from the Aboriginals. And after a couple years of mass fishing, both parties would fall into the issue of overfishing and pollution from commercial fisheries. As a whole, I thought this whole article was interesting to me, but there was a few things that stuck out more than others. It is mind blowing to hear that just alone, Port Jackson has over 580 species. I always knew that there is quite a few different species of fish, but to think that there is over 580 at Port Jackson and then think about how we can’t swim to the bottom of the ocean to discover what lives only down there makes you wonder if any of the legends we’ve heard as children could be true. There could be all sorts of ancestors of fish or other living things deep down there; they may have lived through ancient history. The other interesting thing I read was about all the fish bones. I know that when things die they leave behind bones, but to think about fish bones lasting that long is crazy. When we cook fish and eat them, you see their bones and how small and fragile they are, and to think that some fish bones can last for thousands of years it’s amazin g. Even though I thought this article was very interesting, there were a few things that were a little difficult for me while reading. I really enjoy learning about the ways of archaeologists and anthropologists, but when I read articles like this I have a hard time following what the author is saying because of all of the weird, scientific names they give to fish, animals or even people. I know that it is just how things are named in the science world, I’m just not familiar with all the terms yet, and so I get confused sometimes. Also I get stumped non-stop about how they found out so much information about a certain thing when we didn’t live back then. I think it is amazing how they find so much information from something so small, like a fish bone, but at the same time its mind boggling because its not like bones, rocks, trees, or other things that they study come with instructions. And I think these things are the reason I am so fascinated with this line of work. For archaeology, this is a very important article to explain that what they do is very important. Archaeology to me is a very important part of our lives. If it wasn’t from them, I wouldn’t have been able to learn things about our past from this article. We learn so much about our pasts and that helps us with our future because of the studies that archaeologists do, like in the article. It’s because of them that we are able to know that the Aboriginal people have to convert to a new method of technology because of the British. It also helps us understand what the living was like at Port Jackson during that time period, which also helps understand what type of plants and animals and fish lived during that time. Which has an end result to help explain the transformation how the fish we know about today are different in some way from the past fish, but know that today’s fish came from the past. It’s the same thing with humans, they study and do tests o f human remains from thousands and thousands of years to get a better understand of where we came from, and what we used to look like or how we came to the features that we have today. In conclusion, this article has given me a lot of new information that helps me understand our pasts a little better. At the same time, it also helps you open your eyes a little more because in today’s world, we have technology change all the time and we are just all so use to it that we don’t really see how much it really changes us or even how it effects us all. Back in the 1780’s I understand and realize how scary change can be for people or colonies. It would be pretty scary for a colony to move to a place you’ve lived and bring these new methods that help and hurt your lifestyle at the same time. And today we don’t usually have those feelings or worries because we are so use to change that we act like it’s nothing. It is also amazing how we are able to look at artifacts or bones from the past, like fish and we know what type of fish they are and long ago they had died. Reading articles like this just is amazing to me because you always wonder how we got to where we are today, or where did we actually come from and why do we have similar features from a bunch of different mammals.